WNYT.com

Planned Parenthood sues Oklahoma over WIC funding

Updated at: 11/12/2012 2:35 PM
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(AP) OKLAHOMA CITY - Planned Parenthood is suing the head of the Oklahoma Department of Health over the agency’s decision to withdraw federal funding for three clinics in the Tulsa area that provide food and nutritional counseling to low-income mothers.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland filed its lawsuit in federal court on Friday against Terry Cline, Oklahoma’s Commissioner of Health.

Health department officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. They’ve previously said the decision to terminate the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, contracts was based in part on Planned Parenthood’s cost per participant exceeding those of other clinics.

Planned Parenthood alleges in its lawsuit that the health department has given a "hodgepodge of reasons" for ending the contracts but that none of those reasons are supported by facts.